#276 Before & After

Caterpillar Suzhou Building Site

Looking Southwest

May-2008

Caterpillar Suzhou Factory
Looking Southwest
Dec-2009

My boss' boss back in Decatur asked this week for a pair of "before and after" pictures of the Suzhou Motor Grader factory to use as part of her year-end summary of accomplishments for the department. Above are the two pictures I sent. The first shows the factory building site in May-2008. The second picuture I took last Tuesday (in the rain with my iPhone) outside the factory from approximately the same angle. We went from dirt to a mostly finished building 7 months later in January-2009 and first production 19 months later in November-2009. Also at the time of the first photo, there were less than 50 employees at Caterpillar Suzhou. Today, there are almost 500 people in Suzhou. It is an impressive accomplishment by a hardworking team.